by Eric Blume
We love our actresses, and the Emmy race for Best Actress, Limited Series or Movie on Sunday night is filled with very good ones. Let’s take a look at who’s in the running and who the winner might be.
Kirsten Dunst nabbed her first Emmy nomination in her freshman foray into television for her role as a deluded hairdresser in season two of Fargo. Unlike Nathaniel, I’m not a huge fan of Dunst, but her work here is probably the best thing she’s ever done outside of Melancholia. What she pulls off here is a very tricky blend of naturalism and heightened comedy, a dangerous high-wire act that could have fallen flat quite easily...
There are moments throughout the season when you don’t quite believe what her character is doing, but she sustains a tone that not only keeps you intrigued and carries over those rough spots, but by the end of the season all makes complete sense on the show’s terms. She and co-star Bokeem Woodbine achieve a very high level of acting which elevates the show into a weird, comic sphere that blends effectively with the dramatic work everyone else is doing. It’s a completely unique creation: she’s a trip.
Felicity Huffman and Lili Taylor are both nominated for American Crime, an overly schematic but very provocative and intelligent ten-episode anthology show. Taylor plays the mother of a teenage boy who is (possibly) raped by another boy at his rich, private high school, and Huffman plays the headmaster. Taylor is an excellent actress, but she’s forced to play a very small set of emotions (there’s a point in episode eight where she smiles, and it feels shocking). Her character by design is annoying, much like her character in Six Feet Under, when you keep wishing she would just disappear (and in that show, luckily, she did).
Huffman fares much better with a much more interesting role: she occasionally recalls Tilda Swinton’s character in Michael Clayton, that corporate automaton who exercises power but lives in fear. Of course nobody can match what Tilda does in that movie, but Hoffman creates a fairly complex villain character for the show…everyone knows this woman who carefully protects herself and always knows just the right words to use to make herself look clean during every ugly situation. It’s an unapologetic performance that really aids the show’s overall power.
Theater legend Audra McDonald, who famously has more Tony Awards than any actor alive or dead, is up for recreating her Tony-winning role as singer Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. HBO’s adaptation is a strange cross between televisioin and filmed theater, so McDonald’s work, which was already highly stylized and mannered but worked beautifully onstage, doesn’t translate as well to the screen. Her performance is captured smartly (but unforgivingly) in all its literal and metaphorical sweat. McDonald will always be possibly the single greatest musical actress the stage has ever had, and it’s wonderful to have her marvelous work captured for history, but most voters will have trouble sitting through the entire thing since it’s so stagy. But there is literally nobody who can slay “Strange Fruit” the way McDonald does here, including Billie Holiday. She’s actually infinitely more talented than Holiday, and that’s part of the fun in watching her do the role.
Sarah Paulson is the category’s heavy favorite for bringing prosecutor Marcia Clark to life in The People v OJ Simpson, and that’s as it should be. Paulson is now on her sixth Emmy nomination with zero wins, when she should already at least have two. She’s the definition of Secret Weapon for everything she does. Here she assays a much-maligned public figure and creates enormous sympathy for her, without compromising the rough edges. Clark’s intelligence is always front and center in Paulson’s performance, and her blind spot is her humanity. It’s always 100% clear why Clark makes every decision on the case, and then Paulson fills in the personal relationships with Chris Darden and her family with startling detail. She effortlessly enhances the show’s themes of racism and feminism. Plus she somehow manages to be funny and sexy, too. It’s a ravishing and inspired piece of acting from one of the most thrilling working actors.
Finally, Kerry Washington scores Emmy nomination number three for portraying Anita Hill, who famously brought a case against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas for sexual harassment, in Confirmation. Washington has some nice moments, but wow is her Anita Hill a snooze. Washington takes a very reverent approach towards the character, and in an attempt to make sure we see how intelligent Hill is, she comes across flat and dull (Washington “plays” Hill’s intelligence, whereas Paulson inhabits Clark’s). Washington does a good job capturing Hill’s cool tone and measured way with words, but there’s not a lot of there there. The performance, like the movie itself, feels safe and uncomplicated, especially against how similar characters and themes are portrayed in American Crime and OJ Simpson.
Who will win?
Every prognosticator is saying this is finally Paulson’s year, and it would be shocking if her name isn’t in that envelope. Yet Paulson has been predicted in prior years and didn’t win, so there’s always a crazy chance she won’t. But nobody else in the category can touch what she did on her show this year. Dunst comes the closest, and probably will be the winner IF Paulson loses. But for as skilled as Dunst's performance is, it’s also mostly subtle and she doesn’t have a lot of “big” moments that voters like to see. Washington probably has the next best chance, and she’s a producer on her movie as well. Huffman, Taylor, and McDonald feel out of the running. Many of us here at The Film Experience who are ardent members of Team Paulson will be thrilled to see her finally give a speech for her great work.